Chapter Seventeen:
The Darkness

	Twilight pumped her arms and legs as fast as she could, a new rush of strength and energy that she'd not known she possessed surfaced with in her, pushing her to escape. Jumping over downed trees, dodging around bushes that barred her way, she felt like she could do anything, except look back over her shoulder to see if the rest of the group was still following her. Her ears were keen, thanks to the rushing blood that pumped into them. She didn't have to look back to hear the tell tale signs that her friends where right behind her. From the panting, to the rustling of bushes and leaves taking solace in the fact that her friends were keeping up with her, unfortunately so were their pursuers. Intermittently she could hear the screeches of the infected ponies sprinting through the trees behind them. These ones were different than any they'd encountered before, they'd evolved into something otherworldly, something demonic.
	When Twilight first saw them, the fear gripped her so hard that she threw up, but that was all she had time for before Applejack pulled her along as they ran. The infected ponies' fur had turned a ghostly shade of pale. There eyes sunk into black wells in their skulls, each holding a single glowing green orb. Green poison seeped from every orifice allotted. Once upon a time Twilight could have recognized them for who they were, but now they'd changed beyond the point of recognition and became nothing short of a nightmare.
	The wall of thorn bushes stretched on forever, as if they'd been magically grown as a barrier to keep ponies from getting to Canterlot through the Everfree Forest. If that were the case, Twilight had never been told about it.
	Ahead of her a large bush came into view, there was no way to  avoid it so she raised her arms to cover her face and felt the branches tear into her. They cut and bit into her hands, tore her over shirt to shreds. Her jeans snagged, but the the force of her sprinting broke her free in the same instance. Then she was free of the bushes, free of the forest...and the earth fell away.
	There was a ravine in front of her, she halted her run, but the inertia carried her a few more feet. Her hooves bit into the dirt slowing her down, but when she stopped she stood abruptly at the edge looking down into a rushing torrent of water below. The fall may have been only fifty feet or less, but it would be enough to crush her if she fell. The adrenaline pricked every nerve in her body, while her fear of heights swelled every blood vessel, it made her skin crawl and itch all at the same time. If she'd had anything more in her stomach, she would have ejected the rest of it.
	Twilight settled back on her feet taking a step away from the edge when she heard a muffled cry from behind, the scraping of hooves in the dirt. One word slipped through her lips. “Shit.” And then she felt the impact. The world was spinning out of control as she fell towards the water below. Shapes flashed before her eyes. Applejack was falling. Pinkie Pie wasn't far behind her. Scootaloo clutched Braeburn, flapping her little wings as hard as she could, but it was no good.
	Then the icy fingers of the water enveloped Twilight. The hit had been so hard that it felt like her body broke, the air was force from her lungs. A pain that tingled every inch of her body, then she was pulled into darkness.

	It was the same darkness that she'd walked before, the icy path that lead to the nowhere of her mind. This time the cold was so bad  her flesh under her fur was turning blue. Her hair frozen to the point of breaking if she touched it. Yet she continued her pace towards the end of nothing and nowhere.
	Something was different this time. When she turned her head, Spike walked next to her. He looked up at her with his big trusting eyes, it brought a smile to her chapped lips, cracking them. On her other side was Shining Armor, who shot back a smirk and a glance with his confident eyes. Twilight felt a warmth pushing through her, it chased the deeply embedded chill away from her heart. When Twilight looked back over her shoulder she saw her friends marching behind her. Each of them smiled when she glanced at them. They returned their unspoken affections with nods, smiles, and winks, it made the warmth grow, spreading through her. She was no longer cold, the dark pathway was getting warmer and for the first time since she entered this world of nothingness, she felt whole again. Twilight felt like her destination was growing closer as if her nightmare was coming to an end.
	A green light appeared in the distance. Just a single green orb that grew closer with each step she took. It was gaining speed towards her, her journey was coming to a close. Then the light engulfed her and was gone in the same brief second casting her back into darkness.
	“What happened?” Twilight's voice echoed through the expanse.
	“You let us down, that's what.” Spike stated. When she looked at him his figure was changing. The infection was moving rapidly through his body. The once plump dragon grew slimmer, more gaunt. His scale paling until she could barely recognize his new mutated form. Then the glow dimmed from his eyes. His skin flaked away until he was nothing more then a skeleton and then he fell to dust and was gone. A shaft of cold struck Twilight's heard, like an arrow shot to kill.
	Rarity took Spike's place, marching in time with Twilight so they had to lock eyes. “Really darling, you were the smartest of us and yet you couldn't quite keep us informed. Mighty selfish, if I say so myself.” The same decaying effect happened to her as well.
	Twilight looked away, not wanting to see the unicorn's mutation, but instead her gaze met with Shining Armor's gross skeletal form. “Thanks to your incompetence Twily, I'll never see my wife again. I'll never see my foal born.” Then he melted away into dust and was gone.
	Twilight closed her eyes tightly. “I tried my best.”
	“I'm sure you did.” Fluttershy's mousy tone, forced Twilight to open her eyes. Slowly the lithe Pegasus started melting away, her eyes sinking into her skull.
	“But your best wasn't good enough.” Rarity chided, pulling Twilight's gaze towards her. Then she was gone into a pool of dust to be trampled by the ponies marching behind them.
	Apple Bloom ran to match Twilight's pace, panting as the small filly looked up at her. “I can't believe my sister likes you. All she ever talks about is Twilight this and Twilight that, bleh. You'd figure for as smart as she is, she'd figured out that you're worthless, selfish, and...” Apple Bloom's melted away before her thought could be finished. An icy hand clutched Twilight's body, freezing her in place.
	Slowly she turned around and looked at the thousands of ponies that had marched behind her. They were looking to her for guidance. There eyes pleading her to be lead from this terrible virus that plagued them. The longer Twilight went without speaking and angrier they grew. The more they decayed and melted away into piles of ash. Now the darkness was full was small piles of bone dust. It looked like a winter wonderland of all of her friends decayed body.
	“...Winter Wrap Up. Winter Wrap Up...gimme some holiday cheer.” The voice was warm and soothing, a beacon of hope in an otherwise doomed world of Twilight's mind. When she turned to look, Applejack sat on the edge of wooden wash tub, her eyes closed, her lips drawn tight while she hummed. Her naked form tone and muscular, yet soft in all the right places. Years of hard work shone in every muscle, cut, and scar across her body. Hundreds of small freckles dotted her body like a star lit sky. Her green eyes opened and she found Twilight, smiling briefly before closing them again, going back to humming and washing her body. She lathered her arms and legs with a coarse looking sponge, leaving trails of thick apple scented bubbles in it's wake. Gliding up along one arm, and then the other working the soap in.
	“Enjoying the show, Sugar Cube?” She asked, her tone was sweet and warm like fresh apple pie. Applejack used this tone so sparingly that it was like a small gift when she did.
	Twilight blushed at the implication. “Yes, this has been the happiest I've been in a long time.” Her voice cracked from the chill in her throat.
	Applejack's smile faded as she cocked her head at Twilight. “Happiest you've been. Ah hon, it isn't always about you.” Another cold shaft struck Twilight's heart, it twisted slowly with each word Applejack spoke. “I didn't want to believe Apple Bloom when she said you were worthless, selfish, and you thought you were better then everypony else.” She got up from the side of the tub and paced towards Twilight, each step brought on a slow decay. “ But when you say stuff like that, it really shines through.” Applejack's skin faded in color, Twilight held up her hand to stop her from coming closer. “This night's been hard on all of us. We've lost friends and family. We needed you to be there for us, but...” Applejack's eyes were covered in a milky white film, the red rings forming along her eyes lids. The infection swelled within her.
	“Please Applejack...stop...” Twilight begged, choking on her own frozen tears.
	But Applejack kept walking. “We all looked to you for guidance, but you spend so much time worrying about messing it up, that you just shut down.” Her eyes slowly sunk into her head, the glowing green hue of the poisonous virus cut through the milky film that covered her eyes. “Any plan, is better than none and right now, we need you.”
	Applejack stood before Twilight in her fully mutated for. Her lips pulled away from her teeth, green drool dripped down from the corner of her mouth burning into Twilight's skin. Applejack gripped the Alicorn's biceps sinking her long claws into the soft flesh. “Twilight...” Her voice gurgled up from the cavern of her throat. It was voice that shrieked like nails on a chalkboard. “My heart is in your hands, babe. Only you can save me...us.”
	“How?” Twilight whimpered, looking up at the figure she could not longer recognize.
	“Sav...” The demon tried to say, but was overcome by the hunger. Lurching forwards to bit down on the tender flesh of Twilight's throat. Icy liquid gushed from the fresh wound cover them both. Twilight could feel her esophagus crushed in the creatures powerful jaws. She couldn't breath, she was dying.